Monday, December 28, 2009

If you’re you’re reading this on New Year’s Eve, don’t worry. You are seeing double, but it’s not alcohol related. It’s an example of the same cover art being used for two different men’s adventure magazines.

The action-filled cover painting above, by artist George Gross, was first used for the cover of the March 1957 issue of Man’s World (published by Medallion from 1955 to 1977). Gross’s painting was reused on the cover of the January 1961 issue of Action For Men (published from 1958 to 1977, by Hillman in it’s first year, and then by Vista, a Magazine Management Atlas/Diamond offshoot).

From the late 1940s to the mid-1970s, over 150 different men’s adventure magazine titles were published.

Some were published by major publishing houses, lasted for years and had relatively large circulations. Others were published by semi-legitimate publishers on shoestring budgets, lasted for only a few issues and had minimal distribution.

Of course, every publisher liked to save a buck. One of the easy ways to hold down costs was to recycle stories and artwork that had previously been published in other magazines, since reprint rights were cheaper than original rights. (I suspect that some shoestring publishers may have “forgotten” to pay the original publishers, writers or artists anything at all.)

Below are more examples of cover art that was used on two different men’s adventure magazines: a great diamondback rattlesnake painting on Men magazine and A-OK for Men, and a Nazi scene used on both Stag and Action for Men.

True, published by Fawcett Publications for most of its long run, was one of the more upscale and mainstream men’s adventure magazines, along with Argosy and Saga. It was first published in 1937 and continued until 1975.

The superb cover painting on the December 1948 issue is by Tom Lovell (1909-1997). Lovell was a New York artist who particularly liked Western subjects. Eventually, he focused primarily on Western-themed paintings and moved to New Mexico.

The cowboy bunkhouse Christmas scene he painted for the cover of the December ‘48 issue of True manages to be sentimental and manly at the same time.

But lest you get any funny Brokeback Mountain type ideas, note that the subtitle of True at the time was “The Man’s Magazine.” Which didn’t mean “girly man,” bub. No, siree.

This subtitle was changed to the “#1 Man’s Magazine” in the 1960s. And, indeed, in its heyday, True’s circulation exceeded one million copies.

Bruce Jay Friedman, the former editor of Male magazine who later became a famed novelist and playwright, explained the hierarchy of men’s adventure magazines this way in his book, Even the Rhinos Were Nymphos:

“High above all others, at a lonely, nosebleed-producing altitude, stood the mighty True, which had achieved its status through newsbreaking revelations about hanky-panky in the conduct of World War II. Several notches below, but sturdy nonetheless, was a slick-looking Western cuspidor of a magazine called Argosy. There followed, at least in terms of ‘classiness’ — if not circulation — Saga; and then, after a bit of a leap and a bound, one reached the nether world of the Goodman books* (as our magazines were referred to at the time), Male, Stag, For Men Only, Man's World, Action for Men, True Action, and so on. By no means did Magazine Management represent the end of the line. There were legions of other titles that generally featured Gestapo women prancing around captive Yanks in leg shackles. When the men’s field met local opposition, the broom used was generally a large one and we were miffed at being swept off the newsstands along with the leg schacklers.”

As Friedman notes, Argosy — like True — was a top-tier men’s adventure magazine. It began as a classic digest-sized pulp mag in 1882, more as a boy’s magazine than a man’s. Over the decades, it “grew up,” both in size and content. It went to normal magazine size in 1941, and focused on an adult male audience that liked adventure, action, war stories and hunting topics.

Argosy used painted covers until the 1960s, then switched to photos. The two Argosy covers below are from December 1963 and December 1964. They each feature a highly creative, painterly Christmas-theme photo taken by photographer Arie De Zanger.

At the risk of seeming unmanly, and politically correct and incorrect all at the same time, I wish those of you who are reading this blog Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa and Happy New Year!

Monday, December 21, 2009

Man vs. beast was a common theme in the stories and art in men’s adventure magazines of the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s. And, the bigger the beast, the better when it came to the perceived manliness of fighting or killing them.

So, bears were a popular topic.

Personally, I am not a fan of Ernest Hemingway-style “big game hunting,” since it often seems more like big game slaughter to me.

But I am a huge fan of the animal attack paintings that were common on men’s adventure magazines. No animals were harmed in the making of the paintings — and they are just damn cool!

But in his younger days, Bob was one of many writers who honed their craft — and made ends meet — by writing stories for men’s adventure magazines.

When I asked Bob for permission to reprint his “Ghost Bear” story, he said: “Did I really write about a ghost bear?”

He chuckled when I sent him a copy to “prove” it and noted that, in those days, he wrote many types of stories for many different magazines.

Bob even wrote stories for True Confessions-style magazines in the late 1950s and 1960s — in the first person, using women’s names as pseudonyms. (The legendary author, editor and screenwriter Harlan Ellison recently told me he did, too.)

Like most stories in the vintage confession magazines and many of the “true stories” in men’s adventure magazines, Bob’s “Ghost Bear” yarn is fictional.

But, unlike other animal attack stories from the men’s adventure genre, Bob’s shows unusual respect for the bear involved — which is one of the reasons I particularly like it.

Bob’s bear story is illustrated with photos rather than artwork. So, to give you the flavor of the bear attack cover paintings from men’s adventure magazines, I’ve posted a few of my favorites in this entry.

It’s the June 1957 issue of True Men Stories magazine. The great bear attack painting, by an uncredited artist, is for the story “A Kodiak Bear Ripped My Flesh.” (Yes, “Ripped My Flesh” was a popular headline phrase in men’s adventure magazines.)

Friday, December 18, 2009

I am a great admirer of the cover paintings and illustrations artist Will Hulsey did for men’s adventure magazines in the Fifties, Sixties and early Seventies.

The cover with the vicious flying squirrels in the header of my blog and the one with the killer turtles are both by Hulsey.

He was the grandmaster of killer creature covers, which I have nicknamed the “Weasels Ripped My Flesh” subgenre, after the famed cover painting Hulsey did for the September 1956 issue of Man’s Life magazine. (The headline for the story that painting goes with is where Frank Zappa got the title of his 1970 album.)

In addition to his great animal attack covers, Hulsey also painted many other types of action-filled scenes for the covers of men’s postwar pulp magazines.

For example, below is a superb World War Two war scene Hulsey created for the February 1960 issue of True Men Stories, to go with the story “INCREDIBLE ESCAPE from the NAZI NIGHTMARE.”

At the left is a photo of the original cover painting.

Next to that is the magazine cover, showing how well Hulsey planned for the placement of the title and cover headlines.

If you’re wondering about the color difference, what I’ve heard is that the reds were enhanced on covers like this to make to make them more eye-catching. (Though I don’t really know if that’s true.)

Hulsey’s original artwork for this cover is a 26½ inch by x 20½ inch oil painting on illustration board. According to the Heritage Auction Galleries website (which is a great place to look for original magazine art, among other things), this Hulsey painting sold for $8,962.50 in an auction a few years ago.

There are already quite a few Hulsey covers on this blog and there will be more in the future. I really love his work.

But I recently realized that I don’t know much about him. So, I started doing some research to find out more.

The excellent book Men’s Adventure Magazines by Rich Oberg, Max Allan Collins and George Hagenauer does have a brief bio that says:

“Hulsey painted covers and interiors for a number of publishers – most notably for Man's Life – before assisting art editor Milton Louis and editor Harold Straubing at True Men Stories (the first series of True Men, before Stanley bought it and dropped the “Stories”), home of such classics as the rabid flying squirrel cover.”

I googled “Will Hulsey” in combination with various other words, but didn’t find much additional information.

Then, today, a fellow men’s adventure magazine fan told me that Hulsey’s full first name is William — and that he generally used Wil for short, rather than Will.

This led to a number of other discoveries.

For example, I found out that Wil is still alive, in his eighties and living in California.

I also found out that his daughter, Lindalee Hulsey, is an artist herself, whose work has recently been showing at the Art Gallery de Placencia in Santa Barbara.

Now that I’ve stumbled upon those facts, I am hoping to contact Wil Hulsey for an interview.

PTSD — known as “battle fatigue” or “shell shock” in previous decades — is discussed and dealt with more openly and directly today than in the more restrained 1940s and 1950s. And, there is now more recognition of how important and therapeutic it is for veterans to talk about their traumatic wartime experiences, especially with other veterans.

In their time, men’s adventure magazines provided one way for vets to have such “conversations.” They published non-fiction and fiction stories about the gut-wrenching, bloody realities of war, about what it was like to be a GI, to see friends killed, to be wounded, to be a prisoner of war, to survive hell.

The men’s adventure magazines also had what we might now call “interactive” forums, where veterans could “post” notes and letters, and communicate with former war buddies.

The August 1957 issue of Battle Cry is a good example. Its moving cover painting was done by the talented artist Mal Singer (1911-1974), who created covers and illustrations for many pre-WWII and postwar magazines and books.

Like most cover paintings on men’s adventure magazines, Singer’s tells a story. We see two GIs in a foxhole. One has the “thousand yard stare.” The other is reaching out to try to save a lost puppy who wandered onto the battlefield. It’s a brilliant glimpse of soldierly compassion and vulnerability in the midst of war.

Inside the August 1957 issue of Battle Cry, there are several monthly “departments” that show how some of the men’s adventure magazines helped war vets interact with each other — almost like an online forum does today for people who share certain interests or problems.

In Battle Cry’s “Whatever happened to...” section, veterans could post notices “to find that joker who shared your foxhole” and “find out when an where your old outfit is having a reunion.”

Vets were also invited to send in brief articles to the magazine’s “Service Record” department, to “tell us about your reunions, your publications, your picnics, etc.”

In future entries on this blog, I’ll discuss some of the feature stories from the August ‘57 issue of Battle Cry. It’s one of my favorite issues — especially because it contains a rare find: an early Harlan Ellison story, titled “I RAPED FREEDOM IN BUDAPEST!”

In the meantime, I’ll let you enjoy this “cheesecake” photo spread from the same issue of Battle Cry. It features the lovely Doreen Lord, who appeared in several men’s magazines back in the day. (Hey Harlan, did you know her?)

Friday, December 11, 2009

The Weider company did publish several magazines that were representative of the genre, such as Fury, Outdoor Adventures and Safari.

But American Manhood was different.

It was kind of a cross between a bodybuilder magazine and a men’s adventure magazine.

That probably reflects the fact that the owners of the Weider publishing firm were the famed bodybuilder guru Joe Weider and his brother Ben.

In addition to men’s adventure magazines, the Weider brothers also published several popular bodybuilding and fitness magazines, including Muscle & Fitness, Flex, Men’s Fitness and Shape.

If you read vintage men’s magazines or comic books, you may know Joe Weider best from the ubiquitous Weider bodybuilding ads that ran in men’s adventure and bachelor mags and comics in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.

My favorite is the Seventies ad at right that featured a young Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Now, I admit, I know nothing about the world of bodybuilding.

And, guys like Joe Weider and Arnold Schwarzenegger seem like manly men to me.

But looking at the covers of American Manhood — which was published for about two years in the early 1950s — does make me wonder if it was ahead of it’s time when it comes to gays in the military.

Adam Parfrey’s excellent book about men’s adventure magazines, It's a Man's World, says that the wild underwater cover painting for the December 1952 issue of American Manhood was done by Peter Poulton. The other cover paintings shown here are uncredited, though they look like they may have been done by the same artist.

I was unable to find a bio of Poulton. He does appear to have painted covers for some of the prewar pulp magazines. If anyone has more info about Peter Poulton or the American Manhood covers, please let me know by sending me an email or leaving a post on the the Men’s Adventure Magazines Facebook Group.

Back in the 1950s and 1960s, these magazines were categorized simply as “Men’s Magazines” in the annual Writer’s Market books published in those decades.

They used that term to apply to two genres of magazines targeted to men: those that were printed on pulp paper and those that were printed on slick paper.

The men’s magazines printed on pulp paper, which are the main subject of this blog, had painted covers (printed on slick paper) and were somewhat similar to or, in some cases, directly descended from some of the pre-WWII pulp magazines.

The men’s “slicks” of the Fifties and Sixties, also called "bachelor" or "girlie" magazines, typically had photos of pretty girls on the covers rather than painted scenes. And, unlike most of their pulpy relatives, which typically had fairly mild “cheesecake” photos, the girlie magazines featured nude photos (though sans any visible “dark triangles” until around 1970).

Some vintage men’s magazines were printed partially on pulp and partially on slick paper and some featured both painted illustrations and photos on their covers. In addition, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, some men’s magazines changed from a pulp adventure style format to a slicker girlie mag format – making it even harder to pigeonhole them with a specific term.

Starting in the 1980s or thereabouts, magazine collectors began using the terms “men’s sweats” and “sweat magazines” to describe the vintage men’s magazines printed on pulp paper. But today, those terms seem to be used primarily by people who don’t really like the genre much, or by people who hear those names and simply think they are the “correct” terminology.

However, as noted by Robert F. Dorr, an esteemed military historian who wrote hundreds of articles for men’s magazines from the late 1950s to the mid-1970s, neither of those “sweat” terms was in common use at that time. In the discussion thread on the Facebook Group I mentioned, Bob said: “I never heard the word ‘sweats’ used to describe any of these magazines during the years they were in existence.”

Bob prefers the term “men’s adventure magazines.” And, I agree.

For example, consider the cover of Man’s Magazine below, with the painting by Mel Crair — done for Bob’s own World War II story “Yank Ace Who Saved the Anzio Invasion.”Compare it to the Man's Book magazine cover from the same year, with the Nazi bondage and torture scene painted by John Duillo. Yes, both covers have World War II scenes. But, to me, only one fits the image associated with the somewhat derogatory term “men’s sweats.”

Rich Oberg — the biggest and most knowledgeable collector of the magazines and original art from the genre — has also weighed in on the terminology issue in the Facebook Group discussion thread.

“The worst part about calling them ‘sweats’ is it leaves off the vast majority of titles (many running well over a decade) clearly falling within this genre,” he said. Richs dislikes the term “sweats” and feels that, if used at all, it should only be used to describe “the most extremely lurid subset” of the genre, like those that focused on sex-laden bondage and torture scenes. As Rich points out, those are really a subgenre and not representative of the broad range of magazines in the genre, many of which primarily featured war scenes, animal attacks, and historic and exotic adventure scenes on their covers.

The great book Rich helped create, which features covers and original artwork from his awe-inspiring collection, helped popularize the term “men’s adventure magazines” as the most commonly heard name for the genre today. The full title of that book is Men's Adventure Magazines in Postwar America.

The other excellent book about the genre, Adam Parfrey’s It's a Man's World, is subtitled Men’s Adventure Magazines, The Postwar Pulps.

I primarily use term “men’s adventure magazines.” But I also use “men’s pulp magazines,” since I see some clear links between the prewar pulps and the postwar men’s adventure mags.

Mike Harwood, another aficionado of the genre who joined in the terminology discussion on the Facebook Group, has countered: “I personally prefer the term ‘sweat magazine’ which, to me, has a certain poetry to it because it makes me think of the sweat that appears when one is either attacked by killer turtles or enticed by nympho teenage belly dancers...or perhaps even the sweat that appeared on the brow of people approaching the counter with a magazine that they shouldn’t have been buying.”

That’s definitely a well-written and smile-inducing point of view. And, I’d bet that most people who enjoy vintage men’s adventure magazines have a fondness for those wild, campy “sweat magazines” — even if they use that term for a subgenre rather the genre as a whole. I certainly do.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Recently, I had the good fortune of talking with Rich Oberg, who is literally the world’s greatest collector of men’s adventure magazines and the original artwork created for them.

Examples from the Rich Oberg Collection are what you see in the richly illustrated book Men's Adventure Magazines, which Rich helped create for the Taschen publishing company, with writers Max Allan Collins and George Hagenauer.

Rich told me he started down the road to putting together the world’s biggest collection of men’s adventure magazines and art after making a spur of the moment decision to attend a Pulpcon at Bowling Green in 1994. (Pulpcon is a popular convention for fans of pre-WWII pulp magazines.)

“I’m 55 and missed most of the men’s adventure magazines when I was a kid.” Rich said. “But I remember being fascinated with some of their wild covers as a teenager when I saw them on the store shelves. I also remember I found one my dad had in our attic, Man’s Book January 1966, which I quietly confiscated hoping he wouldn’t notice. He didn’t.”

Many years after “collecting” that first magazine, Rich recalled his fascination with men’s adventure magazines and thought it might be fun to collect them.

“In the 1980s, I found a guy who sold mostly adult photo mags from the ‘60s who also had some nice men’s adventure magazines,” Rich said. “I bought some from him and other sellers and had a fledgling collection, and then the pipeline stopped. This was in the days before eBay, and I just couldn’t find many high quality copies.”

“Then came the Bowling Green Pulpcon. Robert Lesser[the premier collector of prewar pulp art] had an exhibit of original pulp art from his collection there. I heard the stories of how Lesser was once considered a ‘nut’ for investing in pulp artwork. Of course, later, when examples of original prewar pulp art were going for tens of thousands of dollars each, no one was laughing anymore.”

“Then, I thought, what about the men’s adventure magazines? I like the postwar men’s adventure art even better, stylistically and as examples of American realism art. But where is it? And, does it even exist? After a lot of phone calls and trips to see dealers and artists, I found out it did exist. I went nuts! I decided I wanted to be the ‘Bob Lesser of men’s adventure art’ and guess by most accounts I’ve succeeded.”

Luckily for fans of the men’s adventure magazines, Rich Oberg succeeded in a big way. His incredible collection of men’s adventure magazines is the largest and most complete in existence. So is his collection of original art from the genre, which he put together not only by finding dealers with rare stashes of men’s adventure magazine art, but also by tracking down and buying directly from some of the great artists themselves, like Norm Eastman and Mort Kunstler.

Together, those books also helped popularize the term “men’s adventure magazines” — as opposed to the older, somewhat derogatory term “men’s sweats.”

Rich and I both feel that “men’s sweats” should probably only be used to refer to the subgenre that focuses on bondage and torture artwork and stories (if at all).

The term “men’s adventure magazines” is more comprehensive and includes other common subgenres, like the artwork and stories that focus on war, exotic adventure and animal attacks.

I also use the term “men’s pulp magazines” interchangeably with “men’s adventure magazines.” And, the Parfrey book uses the term “men’s postwar pulps.” (There’s a discussion thread about this terminology debate in the new Men’s Adventure Magazines Facebook Group associated with this blog.)

In future posts here, I’ll pass along some more interesting facts and great anecdotes I’ve heard from Rich Oberg, the Dean of the men’s adventure magazine realm. Thanks, Rich!

Friday, November 27, 2009

When I bought the August 1954 issue of Male magazine shown at left, with the superb cover painting of a rhino attack by artist Robert G. Doares, it reminded me of the book Even the Rhinos Were Nymphos, by a former editor of Male magazine, Bruce Jay Friedman.

Today, Friedman is known as a critically acclaimed novelist, playwright and screenwriter. He’s the author of bestselling novels, such as Stern and A Mother's Kisses, popular plays such as Scuba Duba and Steambath, and screenplays for hit movies like Splash and Stir Crazy.

Friedman’s book Even the Rhinos Were Nymphosis a collection of his non-fiction articles. The title story is a witty account of his pre-fame years as a men’s magazine editor in the 1950s and 1960s.

Around 1955, Friedman was hired as an editor of Swank by the legendary men’s magazine and early Marvel comics publisher, Martin Goodman, owner of the Magazine Management company.

After a short stint at Swank, Friedman was moved over to edit the men’s adventure magazine Male, one of the most popular titles published as part of Magazine Management’s Atlas/Diamond Group of men’s magazines.

At the time, the circulation of Male exceeded a million copies per month. It had talented staff writers like Mario Puzo (who later gained fame as the author of The Godfather) and used painted cover and interior art by some of the best illustrators of the day.

A staple of Male in the 1950s was what Friedman calls “animal nibblers” — the “stories about people who had been nibbled half to death by ferocious little animals.” (They’re what I call the “Weasels Ripped My Flesh” subgenre.)

Other regular features of Male included: true, faux and fiction war stories (Puzo was a master at writing believable but fake “true” war stories, usually under the pen name Mario Cleri); exotic adventure yarns; true crime stories; sexposés about “Sintowns”; and, fairly mild “cheesecake photos”, retouched to remove any glimpse of nipples or “dark triangles.”

The formula used by Male was similar to that of other Atlas/Diamond Group men’s adventure magazines, like Action for Men, For Men Only, Men, Man’s World, Ken for Men and Stag.

In his Nymphos book, Friedman says of these magazines:

“Although Magazine Management had the reputation of being somewhat of a ‘sin pit,’ the Goodman magazines, at root, were outrageously pristine, almost conventlike. Never before has there been a case in which the name triumphed so resoundingly over the game. Although ‘nymphos’ abounded in the pages of Male and Stag (even the rhinos were nymphos) and girls were mentioned frequently who would ‘do anything and everything,’ one would have to look elsewhere to discover exactly what that anything and everything was.’”

The August 1954 issue of Male has an “animal nibbler” story that is fishy in more ways than one. It’s about a diver’s fight with a shark titled “GIVE ME BACK MY HAND.” The shark is a nurse shark, a generally docile bottom dweller that only bites if harassed – as the one in the story is by the diver.

There’s also a classic “Sintown” sex expose – “NEWARK: poor man’s Paris.” (Little did you know, eh?) Another “true” story in this issue, about a hotel security “detective”, has the snigger-inducing title “I am a HOUSE DICK.”

There are two stories of special note from an pulp art and pulp fiction perspective. One, titled “Limpo’s in Town,” is by James Kalshoven, a top-tier magazine writer published by many other popular magazines of the era, such as The Saturday Evening Post. The Kalshoven story features a nice, noir-style painted illustration credited to Bob Schultz. (I think the artist may actually be Bob Schulz, a talented artist and prolific whose work appears on and in many men’s adventure magazines.)

The other notable fiction story is “Kovac’s Boy,” a touching Korean War tale by C.A. Rogers, illustrated by Vic Prezio.

Prezio was a frequent contributor of covers and interior art to men’s adventure magazines. He’s also among the men’s pulp mag artists who also provided art for Warren Publishing’s classic monster fan magazines, Creepy, Eerie and Famous Monsters of Filmland.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

On this blog, I regularly feature some of the great cover paintings and interior art from men’s adventure magazines of the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s. I’m a big fan of horror magazines and films, too. So, as my contribution to the Frankensteinia blog’s very cool “Boris Karloff Blogathon”, today’s post provides a look at some connections between men’s adventure magazines and the horror genre.

A number of artists who provided artwork for men’s adventure magazines are also known for their horror-related artwork, such as Basil Gogos, James Bama and Norman Saunders.

As horror fans know, Basil Gogos created many of the most popular and visually striking covers for Warren Publishing’s magazines, Famous Monsters of Filmland, CreepyandEerie. His paintings of Boris Karloff as the Frankenstein monster are among his most famous. He also painted Karloff portraying other horror film characters, including The Mummy and The Ghoul.

These Gogos covers definitely have a horror film feel. Indeed, they look like they could have been posters for an old Grade-B horror-style caveman movie, like Eegah! (a 1962 film that starred Richard “Jaws” Kiel as a giant caveman).

James Bama is another talented artist whose work is familiar to both horror fans and collectors of men’s pulp magazines.

Bama is widely known for the covers he painted for Bantam’s Doc Savage paperback reprint series. But horror fans will also recognize the cover art he did for the boxes used for Aurora’s plastic monster models in the 1960s.

The Aurora model series featured almost all of Universal Studio’s classic monsters, including Boris Karloff’s Frankenstein monster, Karloff’s Mummy, Bela Lugosi’s Dracula and Lon Chaney, Jr. as The Wolf Man. Like Basil Gogos, Bama also provided cover art for some of the Warren magazines.

I also recently stumbled across a connection between one of the greatest pulp artists of all time – Norman Saunders – and the Frankenstein monster.

In addition to providing artwork for pre-WWII pulp magazines, postwar men’s adventure magazines and the wild Mars Attacks trading cards of the 1960s, Saunders painted covers for many comics – including the cover of the 1969 Classics Illustrated version of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Of course, in terms of horror, Saunders’ Frankenstein painting pales in comparison to some of the cover paintings he created for the prewar pulps and postwar men’s adventure magazines.

The scenes depicted in those bondage and torture covers – and on the bloody“Weasels Ripped My Flesh” style “killer creature” covers that were popular on vintage men’s adventure magazines – include key elements that are shared by the horror genre: evil people, bloodthirsty creatures, plenty of gore, scantily clad damsels in distress and a bit of sex.

I think these elements are in both genres for same reasons. They provide titillating, vicarious thrills, scares and fun. But they’re not real, illegal or dangerous. So, they are scary but “safe.” We can view them as interesting and cool, rather than as truly horrific – such as the things we see all too often on the nightly news.

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About Me

After retiring from forty years of work in the realm of public policy and politics, I now write three blogs (ThisDayinQuotes.com, QuoteCounterquote.com and MensPulpMags.com) and co-edit the Men's Adventure Library series of books published by New Texture (www.NewTexture.com). Those books — on Amazon here > bit.ly/RobertDeis — feature stories and artwork from my collection of more than 5,000 vintage men's pulp adventure magazines. I live near Key West with my beautiful wife, Barbara Jo, and our three dogs and five cats.

My Other Sites

This Day in QuotesThe famous quotes linked to each day of the yearQuoteCounterquote.comOrigins, witty uses and abuses of famous quotationsWeaselsRipped.comPreview of our WEASELS RIPPED MY FLESH! men's adventure magazines story anthologyWalterKaylin.comPreview of our anthology of men's adventure magazines stories by the great Walter KaylinMensCrypto.comPreview of our CRYPTOZOOLOGY ANTHOLOGY, the first ever colleciton of men's adventure magazine stories about Bigfoot, Sasquatch and other legendary monsters